I carried my coffee into my office as Ranger and Joe went into the boardroom. Minutes later, I could hear Cal and Hector join them. I turned on my computer and carried in the map of Trenton that I had printed off and spread it on the board table. I had already started to identify locations on the map, and I explained to the guys how I had been numbering them and identifying who they were linked to. The map, however, only had the locations associated with the people that I had reviewed. I left the team the colored markers and the print-off of the gang members' reports, and asked them to continue marking down locations as they read the reports that the other researchers had done.

I grabbed a slice of the apple cinnamon loaf and left the boardroom for my office, and started to research. As I got into it, though, I sat up straight. According to Brett's notes, Roscoe Atticus was the boyfriend and pimp of one of his own prostitutes, a 'ho that was a drugged shell of a woman who took too much drugs one night and overdosed fatally ten months before. She left behind a boy child, Eli Ellis. Eli was six years old and was used in the clubhouse to sweep the floors, clean the bathrooms, and look after the men – physically. Brett said that, although he suspected it, Eli wouldn't confirm the sexual assault and Brett had been unable to prove it. Eli was looked after by Roscoe, and Roscoe was vicious and cruel. He abused Eli on a regular basis and rarely spoke to him without screaming. Brett said that Eli was scared of Roscoe and he had been trying to build Eli's trust and become his friend. I just knew that finding Eli would be the clue we needed to find Brett.

I further read through Brett's case notes. He had hoped to capture Eli and help him get adopted when the case was over. He said that he was a good kid who desperately needed someone to believe in him, someone to love him and give him a cuddle when he had nightmares, someone who honestly cared about him. I copied Brett's notes and put them in a separate document. I attached it to an email and said, "I think I've found a way to identify Brett's location...", and sent it to each of the team members with a note to meet in the boardroom in another five minutes.

While I waited for each of the team members to review the document, I did a quick search for Eli. He didn't have a birth certificate. He didn't attend school, nor did he have any health insurance or any other documentation. I then researched his mother. She was from Alabama and for some reason travelled to Trenton. Her family was all dead. There was no next of kin for Eli.

I printed off my notes on Eli and walked into the boardroom just as Dirk and Miguel and Nick left from their offices. "What do you have, babe?" said Ranger.

"I don't know if you have had a chance to review the file that I sent. Brett had done some case notes and when I was looking into his notes to add to Roscoe's in-depth review, I ran across a name. Eli Ellis is supposed to be about six years old. He has not attended school, nor does he have a birth certificate or any other identification. Roscoe Atticus's girlfriend, Faith, was his mother. We don't know who the father is. Faith was from Alabama and arrived in Trenton about five years ago. She was a prostitute who was addicted to drugs and died of an overdose ten months ago. Roscoe has been 'taking care' of the boy since, although Brett believed that Eli was being sexually abused by all the members of the club, including Roscoe. He could not get Eli to admit to it though and he couldn't find proof. He said that Eli is a very quiet kid, scared to make a sound and have people focus their attention on him. However, when you looked at him you could tell that he was very smart and was watching everyone around him. He said that he'd been befriending Eli as he felt that Eli would be a valuable witness. He had also wanted to earn Eli's trust and get him away from Roscoe and into a loving home."

"What are you thinking, Steph?" said Cal.

"If Eli is as observant as Brett thinks he is, Eli might know where Brett is being held. And if they had been developing a friendship, Eli would want to help someone save Brett. It just might take some time to earn his trust."

"We don't have a lot of time, babe", said Ranger.

I looked at him, frustrated. "I know, and in the meantime, we can continue to research people the old-fashioned way. However, this might be the best and most expedient way of working our way in."

"What are you suggesting?" said Joe.

"Is there any way that we can pick him up? Child Services, perhaps?" Joe looked at Ranger, and Ranger looked at Joe. I sighed with frustration. "Look, I don't care how you get him out of there. You need to do it for this case, but it's imperative that you do it for him as well. He's in danger."

"How can you possibly know that?" said Joe with exasperation.

I sighed again. "Okay, I don't. I just think that, if Roscoe knows that Eli has been talking to Brett and Brett is now being held hostage, Eli will be in danger as well. It just makes sense to me."

Ranger watched me for a moment, then nodded once. "How about you go and finish your research, everyone. Steph, find out as much as you can about Eli – pictures and everything – before you finish your in-depth review on Roscoe. It sounds like Brett's and Eli's lives are closely intertwined. Hector, prepare to wait outside Roscoe's house to track movement and living patterns. If there is an opportunity to pick up Eli, use your TPD badge and bring him back to the office. He will need to go into protective custody. In the meantime, keep reviewing all the work that the Research Gurus have been putting together."

"Research Gurus? I like the sound of that", said Dirk with a smile. I laughed.

"I will ask to do that protective custody myself", said Joe. "With Trace being a pediatric nurse and able to connect with everyone except Grandma Bella – and really, who does connect with Grandma Bella? – he might learn to trust us quickly and, more importantly, if he has injuries associated with being abused, Trace will be able to care for him. Also, I will want to be there the minute that he decides to talk, and the more that I am there to provide custody, the sooner he will trust me."

I smiled. For some reason, I thought that Eli needed to be saved, and for some unknown reason I thought that he was in severe danger. It was just time to prove or disprove my theories. "Do you need us for anything else?" I said.

Ranger smiled softly at me. He knew that I was itching to go and find out more information. "No", he said. "I think if we hold you back from researching right now, you'll blow up with frustration."

I grinned. Ranger knew me well.

I almost ran back to my office and continued to research Eli. However, no matter where I looked, I was unable to find anything. The only picture I had of him was a shot that Brett had surreptitiously taken of him. He looked like a nice kid. Dark skin, afro a little too long, solemn face, body a little too thin, clothes a little too small and threadbare. I looked forward to seeing him after he'd been able to eat three square meals a day of healthy food, see him with his hair trimmed and a smile on his face. There was no record of him going to school, but that made sense if there was no record of his birth. As far as I knew, you needed a birth certificate to register. I didn't know if he knew how to read or count. His adoptive parents would likely have to do a lot of work with him to help him get caught up to his peers.

I wondered if Joe and Tracy would be able to adopt him. I knew that they had applied to be allowed to adopt someone and were just waiting to find out if they had been approved, but I also thought that they would be the best people to adopt him. They had so much love to give, and I suspected that Eli could use a little love. Besides, if they were the couple providing protection, he would have already developed some sort of reliance and trust in them. It could only be good to build on that, rather than rip him from Joe and Tracy and put him in another family.

When I completely struck out on Eli, I turned back to researching Roscoe. I had caught a scent, and I knew we were on the right track. As I looked into the information on Roscoe, I wondered if Brett had tried to remove Eli from the house and had gotten caught. I wondered if Eli was part of the reason that Brett had been taken hostage. If he was, Eli would be terrified and probably want to right the wrong. Brett had certainly seemed upset enough and concerned enough about Eli to have done something like that.

I settled down to my research. Roscoe was not a fine, upstanding citizen. He was a pimp who took the girls' money and gave them drugs in return. With the declining quality of substances that the Death Dogs were distributing, a number of his girls had died from overdoses and ill-cut drugs. He owned a run-down house just off Stark for him and his girls. Paramedics who had been in the house when the last girl had died said that it felt like the man didn't put the heat on at all. Temperatures were freezing, there was no furniture, and there was only cold running water. There was little food in the house. One of the paramedics had talked to one of the girls when they were waiting for the coroner, and the girl said that Roscoe recommended to the girls to have the johns pay for a hotel room, and have the girl stay overnight there. The house was known as the loser house, and only those women who couldn't pick up johns for the night spent time there. Roscoe liked it best when there was no one other than himself and Eli there. The woman didn't specify who Eli was though, and the paramedic thought it was Roscoe's lover.

I guess, technically, he was.

Roscoe was doing well financially. He was the owner of his house off Stark and he had a bank balance that was greater than mine had been when I was single. Of course, that wasn't saying much. My bank account had been so sad that, when I got my statement in the mail, I expected the envelope to break out in tears when I opened it up. Of course, when I opened my credit card statements I expected to hear a drum roll. Finances weren't my strong suit.

Roscoe worked for the Death Dogs, according to the regular bi-weekly contributions from the Death Dogs account to his. He was paid well, in line with what Richard Cook had been getting when he was the president prior to being put in jail, and I knew that we had found the president of the new version of the club.

I searched through his family tree and found that Richard Cook was Roscoe's second cousin. I made a note that we could talk to Sandy, Todd's mother, to find out more information. Since she was Richard's sister, there was a good chance that she knew Roscoe fairly well too. She might be able to shed some light on his character and habits. It might be a good idea to get a copy of the demand to exchange prisoners and play it for Sandy as well. She might recognize the voice. I made a note of my suggestions.

I looked through his social media. There was a close relationship between Roscoe and Richard, and it looked like they were good friends. It made sense that he wanted Richard out of jail. Neither of the two people that I had researched previously had such a close relationship between them.

He had no academic history and it looked like he had barely passed high school. However, criminally he'd been very active and, for some reason, he had been able to avoid being arrested. I thought about that. In my mind, that meant that he probably was cocky and overconfident and a bit arrogant. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of evidence of that. However, it was what made sense to me.

He had been treated for several sexually transmitted infections, which further made me think that he was a bit cocky, no pun intended. It said to me that he felt he was above getting sick and therefore refused to wear a condom. It also told me that he wasn't checking his girls regularly, and they were bringing infections home. The whole idea of a prostitute having infections and spreading them around was a little dirty to me, and I was glad that Ranger didn't partake of sexual services outside the marriage. I would be furious if he brought an infection home. Of course, Ranger was too honorable to hop into bed with other people. After all, he had turned Joyce down and, although she didn't charge for her services, she was the next best thing to a 'ho and had done at least half of Trenton. I said 'at least half' since I wasn't including the animals – if you included the animals, she definitely had done more than half.

Joyce told me herself that she'd had several STIs over the years. While it didn't surprise me according to who had been dipping their wick in her, it made me think about Eli. I wondered if he had been exposed to STIs, and whether he was also sick. Again, with Tracy being a nurse she would be able to help with that. God, I hoped that Eli didn't have something as serious as HIV. I checked Roscoe's history again. Nope, no HIV. I breathed a sigh of relief.

I wrote up my findings and sent my report off to the team, and checked the time. I had been flying and, despite the review being complicated, I was able to get it done in three hours. As I surfaced, I realized both that my coffee was cold and that I desperately had to use the washroom.

I left my office as Ranger came to see me. "Not now", I said as I ran past him.

"Washroom?" said Ranger.

"Could you see me dancing?"

I heard him laugh as I ran down the hall, and a few short minutes later I was walking out of the bathroom with relief. Ranger was waiting outside the doors. "Better?" he said.

"Yes!" I grinned. "I thought I was going to wet my pants."

"I wasn't sure, by the speed that you were moving, if it was coming up or down. The last time I saw you move that fast to a washroom you were suffering from morning sickness."

I smiled. "Thank God that is no longer a problem. However, you should have seen me move when we got to the chalet after a four-hour drive last summer. What they say about women's abilities to hold it in after they have had children is true. Pretty soon I will define an all-nighter as the ability to go through the night and not have to get up to pee." Ranger laughed.

"I was actually coming to find you for a reason. Ella is opening the breakfast line early. Instead of seven-thirty, she is opening it at six-thirty for us. I had told her last night what was going on, and she said that she would like to make us a special breakfast. I don't know what she has in mind, but she said that she would made a special breakfast for everyone but me, and she would make me a normal breakfast. To me that means that she is cooking bacon for everyone." He shook his head and sighed. "Live it up, babe." I laughed. "Seriously, she said she would cook it at home, and anyone who was working overtime to locate that poor man deserved something special. Her words."

"Did I mention I love her?" I said.

Ranger smiled. "I know. I was always glad that she was already married when you met her. I might not have won your hand otherwise."

I laughed. "True", I said. "Can you blame me? She cooks bacon."

Ranger grinned. "I know that may be the way to your heart, but I'm still not cooking bacon for you. I will, however, make you pineapple upside-down cake, and you'll have to be happy with that." My mom made the best pineapple upside-down cake ever, and shortly after we had Tia, Ranger had asked my mother for the recipe. I figured I was incredibly lucky, as his was just as good.

"I should have craved bacon when I was pregnant. I had a skip once that stuffed it down her pants and was caught shoplifting. It made me wonder how they cook bacon down under. Do they cook it on the barbie?"

"Their bacon, from what I understand, is different than ours. Ours is a strip of side bacon and the back bacon is cut off and sold separately. In Australia, the back bacon is still attached so you get a much meatier piece of bacon."

I stared at him. "You get more bacon per rasher? Can we move there?" Ranger laughed. "You like back bacon, don't you? It's just side bacon that you don't like."

"True."

"Why don't you cook back bacon then? It would, after all, be better than no bacon."

"Too salty."

"And ham isn't?"

Ranger sighed. "Touché."

I grinned. Somehow, I knew that I had won the argument and back bacon was in my future. Thank God. I loved back bacon even more than side bacon. Maybe. I thought about it for a minute. No, maybe not. Side bacon was God's gift to the world. I knew both vegetarians and Jewish people that made exceptions for bacon. They said turkey bacon just wasn't the same, and tofu bacon was a swing and a miss. I could definitely see their point. To me, they didn't sound natural. After all, what part of the soy bean did the tofu bacon come from?